After the next Panther Clipper update, IMO the next logical gap to fill is an exploration-variant carrier and lots of general QOL fixes for carriers

[Dragsham]

Just read Op.

+1

 

[BackToTheMud]

Not much point in just making a visually smaller version carrier already in the game.
1 large, 2 medium, and 2 small pads would be good for a small carrier (i've been thinking that for years) but that only matters if that is also the limit of ships you can have on it. And a smaller carrier should need less fuel (but the cuurent carriers need way to much) but half the problem is that ut suck mining the absurd amount of tritium you need. And what would even be the point of having a carrier if it ddoesn't have outfitting.
What we need isn't a exploration carrier, or a mining carrier, or a trade carrier. What we need is an actual personal carrier designed for one person to use and run.

 

[Tifu]

What we need isn't a exploration carrier, or a mining carrier, or a trade carrier. What we need is an actual personal carrier designed for one person to use and run.

Got to agree with this. The current FC implementation has too many features that a solo commander doesn't need - but you end up paying for them anyway. Not just in credits, but in design compromises to keep the damn thing from being too overpowered.

 

[GJ51]

"the next logical gap to fill is"​

a Medium Saud Kruger

 

[Dillon Fallon]

"the next logical gap to fill is"​

Is a Medium Saud Kruger

Since this would be something new as opposed to revisiting something years old, I'd say this is exponentially more likely to happen.

 

[anShpan]

New carrier types only after a suitable effective solution for the jump time issue is in place.

Just price for FC of whatever type should be about the same as current, and if same rule "one CMDR allowed to have only one FC" (of whatever type) is kept in place then no significant changes in total number of FC is expected (if I understood correct). We just have to choose that on FC of type the most suited to current activities.

 

[anShpan]

Suggested Explorer Variant Carrier​

• ¼ the size (and cargo carrying capacity) of existing carriers
• Only 1 large, 2 medium and 2 small size pads
• Purchase price, jump and weekly maintenance costs could remain the same - after all earning money is not an issue exploring... ps. I am not suggesting these would be ARX purchasable, but the expanded themes customisability will be and will also be available to existing carriers too.
• Some services will not be able to be added e.g. outfitting? But the bar and Vista Genomics/Sciences should come standard — it's an exploration ship after all
• Command deck and captain's ready room to have a wider panoramic view, perfect for explorers
• Vastly reduced tritium use per jump (e.g. just 10-20t of tritium for a 500ly jump instead of the existing 120t+ for a fully-laden behemoth carrier) — This would mean an hour of good tritium spot mining out in the black could give you up to 10 jumps, not just the one single one currently! Spend a year out in the black circumnavigating the milky way. For five years I've wanted to do that.

Personally, I would shell out a bunch of ARX for ability to buy rent something like that.
And would pay significantly much more Crs, then those 5B as now for something that eats less tritium to mine less for.
And I would feel much, much better far away in the Black if my lonely butt carried on something more compact and economical then current jumping barrack space-station (with dozen of useless NPC crew onboard) that sufficient to carry large squadron.